Searching

Northern Light has rapidly become one of the better search engines on the web, and provides some attractive special features. The Shakespeare Oxford Library has an account with them, and we recommend them to our members and visitors as the best search engine on the web, circa 1999. In addition to presenting Net search results broken down into subcategories and presented to the searcher in "folders," they also provide access to 5,400 indexed journals ("Special Collections"), and can provide full-text of articles for approximately $1.00 to $4.00 per article. Searchers can choose to search both the Web and the Special Collections in one search, or search either separately.

Books and e-text:

• Full e-text files of original Elizabethan / Rennaissance documents and publications: These can be accessed directly from the links provided below. These sites provide vast coverage to authors and the full e-text files of their works (sometimes complete, sometimes selected works).
  • Voice of the Shuttle: Renaissance & 17th Century: The best site for finding links to authors and other works/histories of the period.
  • Luminarium: E-text and links to most of the major and minor authors of the Renaissance.
  • Elizabethan E-texts: A useful index by author's name of various e-texts available on the Net.

• Shakespeare Collected Works :

• Facsimile/photocopies of original Elizabethan / Renaissance publications:

• Facsimile/photocopies of original Elizabethan / Renaissance documents:

• Book Catalog of the Shakespeare Oxford Library : A basic listing of the books owned (author, title, broad subject area) should be online by the end of 1999. Watch this page for further details.

Book Reviews:

• Alias Shakespeare:
  • Alias Shakespeare. Review by Charles Boyle (In The Ever Reader)
  • Alias Shakespeare. Review by John Mucci (In The Elizabethan Review).
  • Much ado about nothing. Alias Shakespeare reviewed by Jeffrey Gantz in the Boston Phoenix.
  • SimonSays. Reviews by readers of Sobran's Alias Shakespeare on the publisher's Web site.
• The Art of Shakespeare's Sonnets.
  • Several commentaries and reviews (from Richard Whalen and Mark Anderson) of Helen Vendler's book appear in the Winter/Spring 1999 Ever Reader
• The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare
• Cultural Selection
• Edmund Malone, Shakespeare Scholar
• Global Shakespeare Series
• Love's Labours Lost: Critical Essays
• The Mysterious William Shakespeare
  • Reviews by readers: (On the amazon.com website)
  • "Why I'm Not an Oxfordian": Review/commentary by David Kathman on The Shakespeare Authorship Page.
• The Norton Shakespeare
• Riverside Guide to Writing
• Shakespeare, A Life in Drama
• Shakespeare, IN FACT
  • Review by Richard Whalen (In The Ever Reader)
  • Review by Publius (pseud.) (In The Ever Reader)
  • Review by Thomas Pendleton (In The Shakespeare Newsletter)
• Shakespeare and the Politics of Prostestant England
• Shakespeare, the King's Playwright
• The Sonnets (New Cambridge Shakespeare, ed. by C. Blakemore Evans)
• This Star of England
• Vice Versa: Bisexuality and the Eroticism of Everyday Life (by Marjorie Garber)
• Who wrote Shakespeare? (by John Michell)
  • Review by Bob Grumman (On The Shakespeare Authorship Page)
  • Review by Polly Rance (In The Richmond Review)
  • Review by Roger Stritmatter (In The Ever Reader)
  • "Unmasking the Bard," by Peter Dickson (Washington Post, May 1997). This review also covers Sobran's Alias Shakespeare and Whalen's Shakespeare: Who Was He? It must be accessed directly from the Post's web site (www.washingtonpost.com) for a fee.

Journals/Periodicals:

• Shakespeare Authorship Studies:
  • The Bard:
  • De Vere Society Newsletter (Henley-on-Thames, England) (1987-):
  • Edward de Vere Newsletter (no.1- March 1989-): Each issue of the Newsletter was devoted to a single topic. A list of all issues published to date, with their topics, is provided here, plus information on obtaining back issues from publisher/editor Nina Green. Searchable full text of all 67 issues will be provided in the near future.
  • Elizabethan Review (1993-): Several selected articles from recent issues are provided, plus information on subscribing and ordering back issues.
  • Ever Reader (1995-): The Society's online magazine has now published 8 issues totaling 55 different articles (as of July 1999). They are freely available to all visitors, and searchable via a full-text search engine on the site.
  • Shakespeare Authorship Review (no.1-no.59 Spring 1959-Summer 1974):
  • Shakespeare Fellowship Trust - Newsletter (London) (193?-195?):
  • Shakespeare Fellowship Trust - Newsletter (American Branch) (1939-1943): An index of all issues published from 1939-1943 will be provided soon.
  • Shakespeare Fellowship Trust - Quarterly (American Branch) (1944-19??): An index of issues published form 1944-1946 will be provided soon. An index for 1947-1948 will be provided later this year.
  • Shakespeare Oxford Newsletter (Winter 1996-): The last six issues published (as of July 1999) are now available as Adobe Acrobat 3.0 PDF files. Eventually all issues published since Winter 1996 will be available. NB: Online issues are available only to current Society members with an ID and password.
  • Shakespeare Oxford Society Newsletter (March 1965 - Autumn 1995): Searchable online text of the entire backfile is planned for Society members. The backfile will be converted to e-text and upload in stages in the near future.
  • Spear Shaker Review (1987-1991,1999-): The original Spear Shaker Review was published by Stephanie Caruana from 1987-1991 (see the table of contents for these 5 issues). It has been revived in 1999. The current website allows online access (by subcription) to the current issue, and will eventually provide access to the past issues.

• Renaissance and Shakespeare Studies:
  • Early Modern Literary Studies:
  • Cahiers Elisabethans:
  • Electronic Sixteenth Century Journal:
  • Milton Quarterly:
  • Milton Review:
  • Renaissance Forum:
  • Shakespeare Magazine : This in the online site for this new general interest Shakespeare magazine. Table of contents to past issues, plus some up-to-date listings and news on Shakespeare, Shakespeare festivals, etc.
  • The Shakespeare Newsletter: Louis Marder's Shakespeare Newsletter is especially interesting to Oxfordians since it carried for many years a special column (paid for by former trustee Russell Des Cognets) on Oxfordian topics. We will soon provide here a complete list of those columns and their subjects.
  • The Shakespeare Quarterly : The Folger Library publishes this title, and provides online the table of contents from recent issues.
  • Sidney Journal:

Recent authorship articles available on the Net:

• Alas! Poor Shakespeare: Society debates authorship. From the Seattle Times, October 1997.
• The Atlantic Monthly (October 1991):
  • The Case for Oxford by Tom Bethel
  • The Case for Shakespeare by Irv Matus
• The Bard's Beard? (in Time, February 15th, 1999)
• Desperately Seeking Shakespeare By Bob Artner on the Cobb Group website.
• "The Ghost of Shakespeare: Who, in fact, was the Bard?" The complete series of 10 authorship essays from the April 1999 Harper's Magazine can be ordered for only $2.95 from the Special Collections of Northern Light. Follow the link to the order page.
• Harvard Magazine (1974 - 1975):
  • The Man Who Shakespeare Was Not (And Who He Was) by Charlton Ogburn
  • Two Harvard Professors Respond to Mr. Ogburn (1975 - by Gwynne Evans and Harry Levin)
  • Charlton Ogburn's Rebuttal [to Evans and Levin] (1975)
• "In centuries old debate, Shakespeare doubters..." (by Scott Heller, June 4th, 1999, The Chronicle of Higher Education). This article can be ordered directly from the Special Collections of Northern Light. Follow the link to the order page.
• In Search of the Real Bard By Ian Chadwick on The Curmudgeon's Website.
• The Many Shakespeares A current piece by Bruce Heydt in the May 1998 British Heritage magazine.
• Meet the New Bard. Article by Society member Mark Anderson that appeared in the Valley Advocate (Springfield, Mass) last May 1997.
• The Search for an Author: Shakespeare and the Framers: This article by James Boyle first appeared in The American University Law Review in 1988. Boyle was the lawyer representing Shakspere of Stratford at the 1987 Moot Court Debate.
• Joseph Sobran's columns:
  • My Ilk and I
  • The Lady Is a Man
  • Party Lines
  • The Men Who Know Too Much
  • The Mystery of Emaricdulfe
• "Shakespeare in Trouble": (by Don Oldenburg, Washington Post, Sunday January 24th, 1999). This article caused quite a stir at the time and lead directly to Time's February 15th, 1999 cover story. The article must be retrieved directly from the Post's archives at their web site (www.washingtonpost.com). A fee is charged.
• Some Ado About Who Was, Or Was Not Shakespeare: Shakespeare Authorship Controversey (by J.D. Reed, Smithsonian Magazine, 1987)
• Who Wrote Hamlet?. From the Sacramento Bee, reporting on Oxford Week in April 1997.
• Who Wrote Shakespeare? by Al Austin (Producer of the 1989 Frontline episode The Shakespeare Mystery)

Reference:

• Cambridge English Renaissance Electronic Service (CERES) : A new site specializing in links to all resouces having to do with the English Renaissance, from e-text to specialized research and reference databases.
• CARL UnCover : An online search index to thousands of journals, with online or Fax delivery of many full-text articles available to individual subscribers. But the searches are free. A great resource for findings citations from 1988 to date.
• Dictionary of National Biography (CD-ROM):
• Iter Bibliography: While the journals database is now for subscribers only, anyone can search the monographs, and they have announced that soon there will be a database of uncatalogued humanistic manuscripts from the Renaissance.
• Mr. William Shakespeare and the Internet: The most detailed site for links to all Shakespeare and Shakespeare-related sites, from scholarly to fun and amusement.
• Northern Light Special Collection: This web search engine also provides a Special Collection of 5,400 journals online that can be search separately or with a combined web/journal search. Full-text articles are available through them for $1.00 to $4.00.
• Short Title Catalog (Microfilm):
• Studies in Bibliography Online:
• World Shakespeare Bibliography (CD-ROM):

• Authorship bibliographies/lists:
  • The Oxfordian bibliography is an inclusive alphabetical listing by author of books and pamphlets, and by title of periodical titles and media materials (video and audio) published in the 75 years since J. Thomas Looney identified Edward de Vere as Shakespeare.
  • The Reading List from Richard Whalen's Shakespeare, Who Was He? is a selected, annotated bibliography subdivided into four sections by Oxfordian works, anti-Stratfordian works, Stratfordian works, and Stratfordian works in response to the authorship debate.
  • The Oxenford Reader is published by Oxenford Press, and provides annotated listings for a selection of books currently available, including its own publications.

The Known Writing of Edward de Vere and related commentary:

Known Writing:
• Letters and memoranda of Edward de Vere : Transcripts of these are maintained on Alan Nelson's Home Page. There are also several other authorship sections on Nelson's page in which he discusses all the reasons de Vere can't be Shakespeare; these reasons range from his spelling, to his sex life, to his finances.
• The Poems of Edward de Vere : These are the 24 poems published in Section I of J. Thomas Looney's 1921 The Poems of Edward de Vere. Notes have been added to those poems which Prof. Steven May believed were only "possibly" by Oxford or "wrongly attributed" to Oxford.

  NOTE: This section will be expanded with the poems/songs that Looney thought might possibly also be by de Vere: 1) the songs as published in the plays of John Lyly in the 1630's, and 2) the poems published in England's Helicon (1600) under the poesy "Ignoto."
  In addition, we also be providing a separate section on the "Poems of Edward de Vere" as edited by Prof. May in the Early Winter 1980 Studies in Philology. This section will include the sixteen poems Prof. May believes are clearly by de Vere, and the four that "are possibly" by him. These poems will be presented in unmodernized English, and include Prof. May's notes on each one.

Commentary:
• Introduction to the Poems of Edward de Vere by J. Thomas Looney : This is the introductory essay that was included in his 1921 volume on de Vere's poetry.
• Introduction to the Poems of Edward de Vere by Prof. Steven May : This is the introductory essay that appeared in the 1980 Studies in Philology issue that included Prof. May's work on de Vere's poetry. We have added the poem numbers used in Looney's 1921 edition in brackets after May's references so that readers can see to which poems he is referring (May does not use titles for any of the poems).
• Shakespeare Revealed in Oxford's Poetry : Joseph Sobran has analyzed the poetry of Edward de Vere in a manner similar to William Plumer Fowler's analysis of de Vere's letters (using only the 20 poems identified by Prof. Stephen May as de Vere's or most likely de Vere's). The number of correspondences between this handful of known de Vere poetry and Shakespeare is such that Sobran concludes that "the case for Oxford is proved beyond any reasonable doubt."
• Benezet Test: For those who say that De Vere's youthful poetry can in no way be compared with the mature Shakespeare, we invite you to take this test, wherein a 70 line poem is assembled out ot 4-8 line sections of both de Vere's poetry and Shakespeare's. See if you can tell which is which.

A special thanks to Bimsan's Graphics for the use of materials from their freebies page.